[ARA]

I received an email response from Bushnell. It doesn't amount to much. I responded, of course.



Bushnell Customer Support <[email protected]>
To:[email protected]

Mon, Aug 1 at 1:17 PM


Thank you for contacting Bushnell Customer Support. I’d be happy to help you with this question.
For part availability and orders please give us a call at 1-800-423-3537. Our business hours are Monday and Tuesday 8:00am-6:00pm CST, Wednesday and Thursday 8:00-4:30, and Friday 8:00-2:00.

If we can be of further assistance, please contact us again via email at [email protected].
We appreciate your business. Thank you.

Bushnell Customer Service

 

[dfariswheel]

I got an out of the blue contact just now...........

Thanks for contacting Bushnell customer support. If this hasn’t been already resolved, I would recommend giving us a call Monday-Friday 8:00-4:30 CST, Friday 8am-2:30pm at 1-800-423-3537 so that we can get it taken care of.

We appreciate your business. Thank you.

Bushnell Customer Service

 

[Tony Jay]

Granted, the Tornado brush looks impressive. But nothing beats an old 12 ga. brass bristle brush wrapped with copper wool like Chore Boy. Soak it with a proper powder/fouling solvent and scrub away. For my smoothbores, a sectioned shotgun cleaning rod goes into the drill with the copper-wrapped brush on the other. (Obviously use enough rod sections so that the brush can traverse the entire barrel.) After soaking the bore for a few minutes (or as long as you please) with Ed's Red, applying the drill-spun brush loosens everything and removes much of it. Pushing a paper towel wad or snug-fitting patch through the barrel completes the quick and easy cleaning.
For the rifled barrel, same process except no drill. Pushing the copper-wrapped brush back and forth 5 or 6 times then the snug patch leave the inside of the barrel looking new again.
Finally, coating the clean bore with Ed's Red not only offers adequate corrosion protection for a year or so, but it also makes it easier to keep clean.

 

[ARA]

I got an out of the blue contact just now...........

Thanks for contacting Bushnell customer support. If this hasn’t been already resolved, I would recommend giving us a call Monday-Friday 8:00-4:30 CST, Friday 8am-2:30pm at 1-800-423-3537 so that we can get it taken care of.

We appreciate your business. Thank you.

Bushnell Customer Service

When I replied to the email message that I received from Bushnell (see post #21, above), I included a proof of my purchase from Amazon. I have heard nothing further from Bushnell.

 

[dfariswheel]

It'll be interesting to see if they reply to the actual snail mail letter you sent.

Apparently they have zero interest in customer service via email.

 

[ARA]

It'll be interesting to see if they reply to the actual snail mail letter you sent.

Apparently they have zero interest in customer service via email.

I pinged them again yesterday via e-mail:

"Dear Sir,
Wouldn't Bushnell like to reply and make this right?"

 

[dfariswheel]

My guess is...."No, not really".

 

[ARA]

You know, I thought that the thread information on the Tornado package - 5/16-27 - was weird. It may the standard for shotgun cleaning rods, but it IS weird. I went to Ace Hardware today with the thought of buying a grade 8 or grade 5 nut and using it to chase the threads on the Tornado. No such thing. The closest available is 5/16-24.

So Hoppes/Bushnell sells a great shotgun barrel cleaning tool that you can't use because the threaded end is incompatible with standard shotgun cleaning rods and with everything else in the world. You know, this isn't rocket surgery. Maybe the Chinese are intentionally screwing Hoppes, maybe Hoppes didn't provide specs in a way that the Chinese could understand, and maybe the Chinese are farking incompetent. They make a Gen5 fighter jet. I wouldn't want to fly it. It might come apart in an inconvenient way.

 

[dfariswheel]

I never understood the idea of making gun cleaning equipment with odd ball non-standard threads when a standard SAE thread would have worked.
All this apparently comes from the early 1900's and the practice just continued since everyone was by then using the same threading for gun stuff.

I'm assuming that Hoppe's-Bushnell by now knows the brush won't fit a standard shotgun rod and either will correct it in future production, or just doesn't give a rip.
All this seems to be a "thing" when an American company moves production to China.

A possibility is that Hoppe's know the thread will not fit standard shotgun rods, but will fit shotgun rods made by Hoppe's.
In which case it may be a ploy to force people to buy Hoppe's gear.

According to my engineer buddy, the Chinese have the attitude that you have to work with their system of manufacturing whether it's any good or not, and you're free to go away.
Problem is, too many American companies are run by Harvard and Warton MBA's who are only interested in the financial part.
As long and the money side is okay, quality of the product is often ignored until the marshals put locks on the door.
Then the MBA moves on to the next company and does it again.

All this is rather stupid considering it's over a shotgun cleaning brush, but it's an indication of what's wrong with American companies selling out their customers and reputation to save money.
I suspect most gun owners would be quite willing to pay a few cents more for a quality American made brush.
But it's that attitude that China is the Golden Land for companies to save money and increase profits at customer and America's expense.
The only people to benefit is the company owners and the Chinese. The American consumer takes it in the neck, the Chinese laugh at the stupid American enemy they're damaging.

 

[ARA]

Here is something of a historical nature that casts some light on the Chinese mindset.

Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) traveled to Goa, a Portuguese outpost on the southwest coast of China in 1578. He spent four years there, and then was assigned to the mission at Macao. He and a fellow priest, Michele Ruggieri, stayed for seven years, built a mission house, and were eventually accepted as men of learning. He learned that the Chinese were very insular, had little or no traffic or trade with the outside world, and therefore had no idea how big the world really was. They thought that the heavens were round and the earth was flat and square. He wrote...

"Because of their ignorance of the size of the earth and the exaggerated opinion they have of themselves, the Chinese are of the opinion that only China among the nations is deserving of admiration. Relative of the grandeur of the empire, of public administration and of reputation for learning, they look upon all other people not only as barbarians but as unreasoning animals. To them there is no other place on earth that can boast of a king, of a dynasty, or of culture. The more their pride is inflated by this ignorance, the more humiliated they become when the truth is revealed."

From The Discoverers - A history of man's search to know his world and himself, author Daniel J. Boorstin, Random House, New York, 1983.

 

[dfariswheel]

As indicated by this, the Chinese have always been the most racist people on earth.
This is not polite to mention these days, but as far as the Chinese are concerned the rest of the world are jumped up cavemen, that need to be ruled by China.

The problem now is that they're getting into a position to act on that.
And American business's are greasing the wheels on a cart heading to Hell.

Funny how a simple thing like an obscure shotgun cleaning brush points to systemic trouble coming.